Of Hunters and Demons
by theevilgood
Summary: Due to her disobediance aboard the BSL Space Station, Samus has been forced into a contract with the UNSC to help eradicate pockets of Covenant resistance. But of course, there are always a few complications.
1. Forward Unto Dusk

**This story follows the canon timeline of the story. This means that the order is Metroid, Metroid Prime Series, Metroid 2: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion. According to the War Naming of the story, these are known as The Zero Mission, The Phazon Crisis, the Metroid Crisis, the Space Pirate Eradication, and the X Incident. Also, since this is a Halo/Metroid Crossover, you will be noticing several Haloid references, particularly in the Master Chief versus Samus scene.**

Chapter 1: Forward Unto Dusk

Samus Aran looked blankly around herself. She simply stood there, examining herself in a half-broken mirror. She was as she has always been, for the most part. As she stood before her shattered reflection, wearing only what undergarments she'd brought along with her for this mission, she could see the scars of years upon years of battle. Her eyes were a magnificent blue, not of the ocean or the sky, but of icy daggers. Some said she could kill with a glare. Her flowing blonde hair was a waterfall down over her shoulders. Her muscles were tense, and defined from years of training, and fighting.

And yet, something had changed after her last mission. Her skin had become more pale than usual. Normally she would not be concerned, but she could feel it. There was an "other" presence inside of her, which hadn't been there before. Samus Aran X had been a menace for a very short time, and yet she had been a terribly clever enemy. SA-X had possessed a power that almost rivaled Samus herself. Only once before had Samus ever faced an enemy as difficult as SA-X, and that time had also been somewhat of an offspring of Samus.

Samus shuddered at the memory of her Dark counterpart. Dark Samus had been the most terrible enemy Samus had ever faced, and Samus had had one too many scrapes with death during the Phazon Crisis.

The Phazon Crisis was the name of one of the many "wars" Samus had taken part in. Although the Phazon Crisis had been years ago, it had burned a whole in Samus' mind ever since.

Samus slipped into some light, civilian clothes, and stepped back into the cockpit of her ship. ADAM's voice appeared over the intercom. "Lady, the Federation has sent a message with the title "Urgent" during your brief bathing period. Would you like me to play it for you?" the computer questioned. "Yes," replied the Hunter, who sat at her console. As she did, a man wearing a Federation Commander uniform appeared on the screen. Behind him was a man wearing a uniform bearing several medals, although Samus could not easily recognize them as official Federation medals.

"Attention Samus Aran: due to your recent disobedience aboard the research ship, BSL, you are being presented with two options," said the man with a stern tone, "You may either serve your time in a federation prison, or help us resolve an issue which we are being asked for assistance in. Should you choose to decline, and flee, you will be issued a warrant, dead or alive." Samus gritted her teeth as two options appeared on her touch-screen. They read a simple "Yes" and "No". A small force in the back of her head urged her to simply flee, and kill anyone who got in the way.

Samus clicked "Yes".

The transmission began again. "Congratulations, Samus Aran. We would like to thank you for siding with the Federation and its allies," said the man, with false happiness, "I would now like to turn your attention to Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood, of the United Naval Space Corps. Lord Hood?"

The man stepped forward, and his facial features became more apparent. He was an aging man of at least fifty years, and he stood with a rigid posture typical of military men. "Miss Aran," he said, "the UNSC is a military presence from a planet in the outer rim of the Galaxy, called Earth. For centuries, we believed ourselves the home planet of the human race, and although we now know this not to be true, we still defend her like she was our mother." Samus reclined in her chair, and continued watching. "I'll cut to the chase, Miss Aran," said Lord Hood, "I'm requesting help from the Federation with a growing problem called the Covenant. I'm assuming you've only heard a little about them. Recently, the Covenant began a massive and zealous genocide of any humans they could find. Although we've managed to kill all of their leaders, the Covenants' still functioning in several small pockets of resistance. These pockets have been launching rather effective gorilla warfare attacks on our bases for days now. We want you to go to the planet Virgil II and eliminate any covenant you find. I'd start with the city on the middle of Virgil II's largest continent." A map appeared on screen, and downloaded into Samus' Power Suit. It pinpointed a small area in the middle of a giant landmass. "We are counting on you, Miss Aran." The screen cut off, and then there was blackness.

Samus stood from her chair, and grabbed her Power Suit from the tube it was suspended in. Her suit had gained a few unique abilities from her most recent voyage to BSL: namely the ability to switch it's function from a selection of all the suit upgrades she'd ever obtained. As she slipped into her suit, she ignored her instinct to run. She stepped back up to the controls wearing everything but her helmet. "ADAM," she commanded, "set a course for Virgil II. Let's get this over with, so that I can get the Federation out of my hair." ADAM took control of the ship, and gave an affirmative "Yes, Lady."…

… Elsewhere, Lord Hood stood before the Federation Commander. "Do you think she'll succeed? After all, she doesn't know that we've just sent her into the largest pocket of known Covenant rebels," queried Lord Hood. The Federation Commander gave a sly smile. "That woman has participated in more one-human-wars than anyone else on the Federation Records. She's single handedly cleared planets of large and deadly adversaries which no one else has survived against, and she's killed the Space Pirate command twice," replied the Commander. "That's not what worries me," said Lord Hood, "It's the fact that my men have just picked up a transmission from Virgil II written by one of our AI that we thought to have been lost outside the Galaxy. Accompanying that AI is a living legend among our men. If those two mistake each other for enemies, there may not be anything left of them, or the city, to recover for reconstruction efforts." The Commander stared blankly at his screen once more. "Anyone that can kill Aran deserves a more medals that either of us have combined, Lord Hood. Believe me, in the unlikely event that those two clash, I can almost assure you that it will end in a stalemate," informed the Commander. Lord Hood gave the man a skeptical look. "Almost doesn't quite tickle my fancy, if you get what I mean."


	2. Clad in Amber

Of Hunters and Demons Chapter 2: Clad in Amber

The Covenant were wavering. Their presence of Virgil II was probably their greatest victory since the humans had defeated their leader at the Ark. They had used Guerilla tactics to sweep the city in one fell swoop, from all sides. The citizens never knew what hit them, and the few UNSC forces in the area had been taken by surprise.

The Covenant forces on Virgil II were all concentrated in the town of Tohmai. This city, as far as the UNSC was concerned, was the largest pocket of Covenant rebels known.

The city was suburban, mostly. Formerly, it was a tightly knit community who would look at for each other, whatever the cost. Unfortunately, all of those people were now dead. The city was surrounded by tall hills, which had made Jackal snipers rather efficient in the Covenant attack on the town. Currently, it was dark, and several of the patrols were resting.

Unfortunately for them, the hills would also prove an effective place to mount another sniping campaign from. On top of one of the hills surrounding town, a large, armored man lay prone on the ground, looking through the scope of his sniper rifle. He wasn't firing, that would be stupid. That would reveal his position, plus the bullets would never accurately reach their targets. Suddenly, something caught his eye. He could barely see it, in the dead of the night. He saw it atop a hill directly opposite from his current position.

The master chief focused his sniper rifle on this new target. He clicked on the rifle's night vision, and looked through the scope again. This time, he saw it clearly. It was a ship. He couldn't identify it's origin, but it definitely wasn't from the Navy. The design was too sleak. However, the markings adorning the ship bore no resemblance to the symbols which were commonly found littering Covenant vessels.

Across the hill, Samus disembarked from her ship. She crouched low, and began to search the area. Several fires were visible in the town, but only a few of the Covenant parties were actually awake, and patrolling. She activated her heat vision, and searched again. This time, she spotted a small heat signature on the hill across from her. She quickly moved closer, and began to make out a man-like shape. But this figure was far too tall and burly for an average human, particularly not one so close to a Covenant base.

Samus drew closer, and scanned her target.

_Vital signs confirmed. Appears to be a humanoid, although several abnormalities are detected within this humanoid's systems. Subject matches no known Covenant units. Threat level: massive. Compared to the threat levels of other targets in the area, this subject should take priority. Advised tactic is interrogation. Failure to comply should result in immediate termination of subject._

Samus took aim, and fired an energy blast just over the target's position, as a warning shot. However, she was surprised when a sniper round flew past her head. She could tell a returned warning shot when she saw one. "State your name and rank, humanoid. I'm here under direct orders to kill anyone who doesn't comply with my contract," broadcast Samus, identifying his radio frequency. She began to monitor his heart rate, in case of a lie.

A gruff, and war-torn voice responded. "I am Sierra, my rank is Private First Class in the Rebel Armies," he responded. His heart rate spiked, although only slightly. "You're lying," Samus responded, "those UNSC guys will be glad to know that I took out a worm during my contract." The man seemed to visibly tense at the mention of the UNSC. "Alright," he said, "I am SPARTAN-117, and my rank within the UNSC is Master Chief Petty Officer."

Samus lowered her weapon, and began to search all available databases for anyone matching those specifications. Suddenly, her scanning screen flared with data as several articles mentioning the man appeared. She then hacked into the UNSC database, and searched it's files. Everything matched.

"Mind telling me what a UNSC dog is doing out here?" Samus queried, "I was not informed of any loose ends when they contracted me to take out this Covenant base." The Master Chief began to tell about how he had been lost in space, deep in cryo-sleep, for almost a year.

"So, to sum up," said the Chief, "I've been conducting reconnaissance on this Covenant base after I crash landed a couple clicks away. My AI is still on-sight, and my recon is complete. Follow me back to camp, and she'll be able to fill you in."

Samus nodded, and began to follow the Chief. "This better be worth it," said Samus, "I've got a mission to complete, so we need to make things quick."

The Chief nodded. "I would say so," he agreed, "the sooner we kill off the Covenant, the sooner I can report to my commanding officer for a briefing."

Soon, the duo had reached the wreckage of a lifeboat and a cryo pod. "How did you ever manage to crash land here without those creatures below detecting you?" Samus asked, suspicious. Master Chief made no visible changes of posture. "I'm not sure, I was unconscious at the time," he said. It was refreshing to talk to another person for once, and this woman reminded him very much of his fellow SPARTAN soldiers. She was somehow different from average bounty hunters, or even average soldiers.

Master Chief stepped into the crashed lifeboat, and walked forward to the cockpit. "Welcome back, John," greeted a female voice. Something flashed across the console, and suddenly there was a picture of a woman composed entirely of data. Samus recognized this as a UNSC Artificial Intelligence. It had medium length hair, and was nude (although, being an AI, this woman had no mammary or reproductive organs).

The Master Chief, whose name was apparently John, stood completely still. Only the AI seemed to notice any change in him. "Don't call me John on the job. You could compromise the mission," he stated sternly.

The AI now turned her attention towards Samus. "Chief, this woman's vital readings and statistics are off the chart. She shows signs of genetic engineering on a level on par with that of the SPARTAN program, with minimal signs of a surgery," the AI observed, "Odd… Chief, this woman's brain patterns match yours, but she lacks any form of neural lace or brain implants."

The SPARTAN tensed inside his suit. This woman was an anomaly, and anomalies are almost never good.

"I am Cortana," the AI introduced itself properly to Samus. The rest of her speech was lost as Samus scanned the console containing the AI.

_No lifesigns detected. Object is identified as United Naval Space Corps Artificial Intelligence Serial Number CTN 0452-9 a.k.a. Cortana. Searching Database… Known as a UNSC "Smart" AI based off of Doctor Catherine Halsey, this single AI has more capacity than several traditional AI combined. Object does not surpass Chozo technology, but is surprisingly advanced for human tech. This AI shows signs of Rampancy, and severe tampering has occurred in it's core processes. Object is now displaying signs of human emotion._

Samus glanced at John, and spoke, "You realize that your AI is Rampant, right?" John gave a slight nod. "She was Rampant. She's better now," stated John, almost reluctantly. Cortana's avatar glanced elsewhere. Samus spoke the words that the AI would not. "Rampancy doesn't go away," said Samus flatly, "If your AI becomes an issue, I will not hesitate to eliminate it. My mission is to wipe these "Covenant" off of the planet. I'm not here to save your computer girlfriend."

John could control his reaction, luckily. "It won't be a problem," stated John confidently, "I will not let Cortana get in the way of our mission."

Cortana's eyes locked on to Samus. "I'm no danger right now," the AI stated, "my current stage is Melancholy." Samus did not change her tone. Her voice was as sharp as steel. "But after Melancholy is Rage," stated Samus, "I would highly advise you to shut off any of your subroutines and leave only your core on during the Rage stage."

Their conversation was cut short as Cortana snapped to attention. "Chief, motion, just outside our base. How did anything ever get past my sensors so quickly?" questioned Cortana. The question was rhetorical.

Suddenly, an object floated into the compartment. It was badly damaged and could barely fly. The hovering orb glanced around the room. "H-h-h-hello," stuttered the badly damaged orb, "I…I-I-I-I am 3…..34….3-3-3-3-3-3…. 3 plus 4 equals… 7" Suddenly, the orb's light went out. It almost instantaneously came back on. This time, however, the voice was smooth and elegant. "Greetings, organisms, I am… no, a more accurate description would be "we". But indeed, we are separate now. I am Mendicant Bias… And I am here to assist you."


End file.
